Ryder
by throughthewindow1
Summary: Ryder Lynn has done nothing but study for the past two years, ever since leaving McKinley. Now it's paying off: he's going to NYADA, and his performing career is on track. But everything changes when he discovers his roommate is Jake Puckerman, and that Unique Adams and Marley Rose are attending NYADA as well. And now with his worldview changing, he must re-examine his beliefs.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This story follows Ryder Lynn and Unique Adams post- _Glee_. As a viewer, I was extremely upset that we didn't see what happened with Ryder, Unique, Marley, and Jake. So this story follows all of them, but, like I said, mainly Ryder and Unique. I apologize in advance for anything I got wrong. And I apologize as well for sending Ryder, Unique, Marley, and Jake to NYADA, but they're all outstanding performers. Plus, NYADA gives me a huge advantage that you'll find out later.

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Chapter One: When Life Gives You Lemons

 _Freshman Year, Fall Semester_

Ryder had no clue what he was going to do.

He was all set. Going to school at New York Academy for the Dramatic Arts. His parents had been so proud of him when he got accepted. His dad had hugged him so tight. "You're going to make something of yourself, son," his father had said.

Ryder had just gotten into his new dorm room. It was bleak, but it'd be good to tidy up. He'd maybe put his _Pirates of the Caribbean_ poster—

And then he saw his roommate.

 _Jake Puckerman_.

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" _What—what are you doing here_?" Ryder sputtered.

"College. Duh," Jake said without looking up. Then he saw who he was talking to. "Shit—Ryder—"

" _You're_ my _roommate_?" Ryder still couldn't comprehend this. He'd finally put all of the drama with Jake, and Marley, and Unique behind him. When Sue Sylvester transferred him away, he became a freak at his new school. The dancing, singing football player wannabe. He'd been laughed out of tryouts. He'd been bullied, called gay, a wimp, all of that. He had a newfound respect for Unique and all she'd been through. But with all of that, it had been easy to put the catfishing business and Marley and Unique behind him. But now Jake was at NYADA—his _roommate_ —it all came flooding back. "How did you get into NYADA? I thought your grades were shit."

"They were," Jake admitted. "I turned them around after I got transferred away. It was easy when the teachers didn't know me or expect me to be an idiot. I sort of liked being a smart kid."

Ryder suspected there was more to the story, but he didn't press. He just sat down on his bet and put his head in his hands. "Any chance we can just forget about everything that happened at McKinley?"

Jake shrugged. "Not going to be easy, man. Marley and Unique are here too. They're roommates."

Ryder groaned. He wasn't angry at Unique anymore—he'd put the whole Katie situation behind him. But he didn't want to see his old friends again. He was supposed to graduate and get good grades. He had extra tutoring because of his dyslexia. He didn't want to have to worry about seeing Marley—who rejected him—or Unique—who catfished him—or Jake—who stole Marley from him.

"How do you know Marley's here?" Ryder asked. "I thought you'd be the last person she'd tell."

"Glee club group chat," Jake answered. Ryder vaguely remembered turning down an invite to the chat. Glee club was his past. NYADA—acting—Broadway—was his future. He imagined his name in lights. Walking onstage at the Tony Awards. He was shaken out of his fantasy when Jake said, "Dude, are you okay?"

"Yeah. Sorry." Ryder nodded. "I'll talk to you later."

Ryder whipped out his phone as Jake returned to his book. He quickly texted Unique—whose number he still had—about, well, his situation. But before he could, his phone buzzed with a text from the very same.

 _Heard you're at NYADA too. Hope we can still be friends._

Ryder snorted. Nobody ever became friends with the words _hope we can still be friends_. And he'd been in love with Katie—who was just Unique in a different skin. Was it so impossible to love Unique?

But Ryder couldn't stop himself imagining him and Unique kissing. He wasn't gay, he couldn't kiss a boy. _Maybe I'm bi_ , he thought before he could stop himself. No, if you were bi, weren't you into guys? Ryder knew for sure he liked girls, not guys. And even though Unique was sort of a girl, she was male.

 _Maybe I can just keep hanging out with her_ , Ryder told himself. That sounded like a good idea. Then he didn't have to worry about Unique's previous crush on him, having to rethink his sexuality, or thinking even _possibly_ , he might be into her—

No. He wasn't going down that rabbit hole. He _wasn't_ into Unique, he _wasn't_ gay or bi or whatever. He was a straight, normal guy who had crushes on normal girls. Like Marley. But he was over Marley now. He was. Right?

Before he could rethink this, he texted back.

 _I'd like that. For us to be friends again._

Little dots appeared on his phone screen, indicating that Unique was writing her reply.

 _Great!_

After a moment, Unique wrote again.

 _Who's your roommate? Marley's mine._

 _Jake Puckerman_ , Ryder responded.

 _OMG!_ Unique texted him. _It's like glee club all over again._

Ryder smiled. _But without all of the crazy shit._

 _There'll be plenty of crazy shit at NYADA, Ryder Lynn. Just wait and see._

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"Are you auditioning for the musical?" Jake asked Ryder as they were doing the homework for their second day at NYADA.

"Don't college musicals usually start in the spring?" Ryder asked, confused.

"Maybe. I'm not sure. To be honest, I don't give a shit. But NYADA does one musical a semester. It's really, really competitive. They're doing _Next to Normal_ this year."

"I mean, I might audition," Ryder said as he filled out his homework for history of theater. Of course he'd audition. He loved _Next to Normal_.

"You should! You're really, _really_ talented, Ryder. You'd get in." Jake flopped himself down on his bed. "I'm going to. I want to be Gabe."

"That's _my_ dream role," Ryder snapped. "You can be Henry."

"Man, I don't want to be Henry," Jake complained. "Henry's a pothead."

"The role you were born to play," Ryder teased

Jake hit him with a pillow. Ryder grabbed his own pillow and swatted back at Jake. Within a few seconds it was all out war.

Unique and Marley walked into the boys' room with them both standing on their beds, pillows raised, Jake saying, "You'll never take me alive!" and jumping down, doing a dive roll, and landing under Ryder's bed. Ryder was the first to see the girls.

Ryder put down his pillow. "Sorry…"

Marley burst out laughing. "You boys haven't changed a bit."

Ryder stared at Unique. She was much more… _feminine_ than when he last saw her. He suspected she'd gone on hormone therapy or something like that. Her hair was in a stylish pixie cut.

"Hi, Unique," Ryder said. It felt like the words were coming out of someone else's mouth. He was very far away.

"Ryder!" Unique hugged him fiercely. Ryder vaguely remembered at some point telling her he'd never speak to her again, but that was a long time ago. Ryder eventually turned to look at Marley.

"Hi, Marley," he said. "Congrats on getting into NYADA."

"You all did too," Marley laughed. "Why is it insane that I did?"

"No, it's just—you're really talented. I always knew you'd end up here." Unique frowned. Ryder noticed, and continued. "You too, Unique. Ever since you first came to the New Directions. And didn't you get the key to the city at some point? You're amazing." Unique smiled with satisfaction, but still didn't look happy. Ryder suddenly realized: she thought he was flirting with Marley. Unique still liked him.

He knew the solution wasn't likely, but he suddenly felt dizzy and sat on his bed. All of this was moving too fast for him. His old friends were at NYADA too. Jake was his roommate. Unique might still like him. He might even like her back—

 _Shit._ He was not supposed to think that.

 _Ryder. You don't like Unique. She is a_ boy _, for God's sake. You like girls. Girls like Marley. Kitty. Marissa, the girl whose picture was used for Katie. Katie. The girl who created her—_

No. Shit. No. Shit. He didn't like Unique, he had liked Marley, and Kitty, and _girls_. He wasn't gay, he wasn't bi.

This inner conversation was beginning to get repetitive.

But as his old friends were chatting in his and Jake's room, as he was nodding, smiling, and laughing, he knew that he wasn't going to get out of this that easy.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: How the Pieces Fall

 _Freshman Year, Fall Semester_

Ryder ran through his audition song in his head. _Relax_ , he said to himself. _Marley and Jake are auditioning too. You have nothing to worry about_. Although Jake's audition _was_ something to worry about because he was another competitor for the role of Gabe. And of course Marley wanted Natalie; there were only a few roles for freshmen and sophomores. It was expected that seniors would get Diana, Dan, and Dr. Madden. Everyone was a little surprised that NYADA was doing _Next to Normal_ , as there were so few roles, but that was the reality of Broadway.

 _The reality of Broadway._ This was even less competitive than Broadway, what if he didn't get cast? What if he failed? Then he'd be a screw-up all his life, a miserable Broadway wannabe.

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Jake was scared shitless.

Ryder and pretty much all the other male freshmen were auditioning for Gabe. Either Gabe or Henry, and Gabe was by far the more desirable part. Marley would be auditioning for Natalie, and she'd probably get it…

Jake wondered what she was thinking right now. Probably confident she'd get it. And then she'd be making out onstage with whatever Henry had been cast…

Wait a second.

As Jake's name was called into the audition room, and he walked in, he introduced himself. "My name is Jake Puckerman, and I will be auditioning for the role of Henry…"

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NYADA was fast as hell at casting, but they always waited a couple extra days to string the students along. For Ryder, those days were hell. Waking up. Wondering if he was cast. Eating breakfast. Wondering if he was cast. Going to class. Wondering if he was cast. And so on, and so on.

So when the cast list was finally posted, Ryder was one of the first kids to see it. He scanned through the list.

DIANA — Rachel Berry

DAN — Olly Stroud

DR. MADDEN/DR. FINE — Lionel Vincent Thomas

NATALIE — Marley Rose

HENRY — Jake Puckerman

GABE — Ryder Lynn

Ryder couldn't believe it. Not only would he play Gabe (his dream role for _Next to Normal_ ), Marley would play Natalie and Jake would play Henry. Ryder was confused, though, because, at NYADA, you rarely got a role you didn't try out for. Hell, you rarely got a _role_. But it was incredibly uncommon to get a role you didn't ask for. So Jake must have changed his mind—perhaps when he realized that whoever played Henry would get to kiss Natalie—in this case, Marley.

So if Jake still had feelings for Marley, and Marley to date had still rejected him since their breakup, it really was high school all over again. And if it was high school all over again, then Unique possibly still had feelings for _him_. Damn, he really hoped she didn't. No. He _wanted_ to hope she didn't.

This ignoring-his-feelings-and-pretending-he-didn't-have-them thing was getting him nowhere. He had to actually reject any possible feelings with pure logic—that was a good idea. Then he could legitimately have no more feelings for Unique.

So Unique was a girl. A girl in all respects except who she was born as—God, this was confusing. He needed help. Advice. From someone who understood.

Who? Sheldon Beiste? No, he hadn't spoken to Beiste since before his transition, he didn't want to make things awkward. Kurt Hummel? He'd never actually _met_ Kurt, that wouldn't work. Blaine Anderson? If Blaine understood Unique, that might actually work. But—damn. Saying any of it out loud would make it that much more real. If it was in his head, he could ignore it.

Ryder dialed Blaine's number. He hadn't talked to the guy since he'd been transferred away from McKinley and Blaine had graduated from high school. He finally pressed the _call_ button and put the phone to his ear.

"Ryder?" Blaine's familiar voice jolted Ryder back to yet more untouched memories. "Long time no see, man!"

"Yeah, Blaine," Ryder said.

"How's NYADA going? I heard you got the lead in the musical! Congratulations!"

"It's not the _lead_. More like the freshman lead," Ryder said defensively.

"Freshman lead," Blaine laughed.

"How'd you even find out?" Ryder asked. "I didn't think you went to NYADA anymore."

"Rachel told me," Blaine explained. "She's playing Diana, I think. You'll be working closely with her, then. Doesn't Gabe have loads of scenes with her?"

"Yeah," Ryder said. "He's always talking to her. He convinces her to try to kill herself at some point."

"That's pretty messed up," Blaine said.

" _Next to Normal_ is pretty messed up. Well, some of it is."

"Anyway," Blaine said, "why'd you call? Not that I don't want to hear from you," he quickly added. "I mean, you're always welcome to call me—"

"I—I needed to talk to someone like you or Kurt or someone," Ryder explained. "I—"

"Are you coming out to me?" Blaine seemed amused.

"No!" Ryder sighed, frustrated. "Well—I don't know. You know Unique Adams?"

A sly smile crossed Blaine's face (not that Ryder could see it over the phone). "Yes," Blaine said.

Ryder had had this all planned out. But when it came to actually saying it, confessing what he was scared might be true—he couldn't do it.

"Nevermind," Ryder said. "Bye." He hung up and leaned back against the wall. Why couldn't he get his shit together? Because he was afraid he might like a boy?

Ryder shook his head and lay back down on his bed. He lay there, staring at the ceiling, for about five minutes before Jake came back in.

"Hey, man," Jake said as he searched through their closet for his pajamas. "Congrats on getting into the musical."

"You too," Ryder muttered distantly.

As Jake changed, Ryder returned to his own thoughts. Why was this so hard? Why couldn't he just face the fact that he might like Unique?

And for the first time, Ryder's head didn't try to deny that fact.

For the first time, he was being honest.

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 **A/N: Thank you for all the reviews! I'll try to update every week but that may not always work, just stick with me. And yes, Unique/Ryder is endgame. Kitty will show up, but the four main characters have not met her at NYADA yet. And yes, I have a good reason for this story taking place at NYADA. It was originally going to be NYU, but NYADA gives me an advantage that I'm not sure NYU would. Plus I get Rachel and Kurt to work with, too.**


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